1. Introduction

In terms of Section 40(1)(c) of the Public Finance Management Act, this department must submit annual financial statements to the Auditor-General by 31 May 2006. It is therefore necessary to close the Department’s books before 30 April 2006. The envisaged closing date is 26 April 2006. Forced closure will be activated by the National Treasury in the event that a department has failed to close its book on time and for this reason an urgent appeal is made to all parties to take note of the following paragraphs to ensure that the requirements and responsibilities have been met.

2. Payments on BAS for March 2006

The processing of payments for March 2006 on BAS should be completed by no later than 12:00 on 31 March 2006. LOGIS payments should be completed by no later than 28 March 2006. An urgent appeal is made to all roleplayers to ensure that as many payments as possible are submitted for the 2005/2006 financial year.

3. Subsistence and Transport advances and claims (T&S)

S&T advances do not affect the closing of the financial year and the normal BAS payment run dates will still apply. However, because S&T expenditure is only charged against voted funds once the claim has been processed, it is important that all outstanding claims in respect of the 2005/2006 financial year are processed timeously. Due to the fact that these claims are processed on PERSAL, they should be submitted by no later than 17 March 2006. Any claims submitted after the aforementioned date will be charged to the 2006/2007 financial year. All differences in the event of a claim being less than the advance must be repaid before 31 March 2006.

4. Receipts (EMDC’s and Head Office Finance)

All offices responsible for issuing BAS receipts must ensure that receipts in respect of March 2006, irrespective of deposit date, must be accounted for in the accounting month March (03) and that all pending receipts have been allocated on BAS.

5. Petty cash expenditure (EMDC’s and DAS)

All petty cash expenditure up to 31 March 2006 must be accounted for during March.

6. Accounting month March (03) (DAS, DLS and EMDC’s)

It is imperative that the correct posting date is used on BAS at all times, especially when journal entries i.r.o. corrections for the 2005/2006 financial year are being captured during March. All authorisers must also ensure that journals captured in respect of March 2006 are authorised timeously within their workflows.

7. Outstanding Transactions on BAS

All outstanding transactions with a status of open, reject, to be rejected, incompl, tobeact, tobeau and rejauth must be maintained, authorised or cancelled. An Outstanding Transactions Report per functional area (payment, journals, etc.) can be requested on BAS at the Reporting functionality (Other Reports). The responsible users can be identified from this report for the purposes of finalising the outstanding transactions. Alternatively, an Outstanding Transaction Enquiry dialogue can be viewed for the outstanding transactions for the Creditor Management and Creditor Payment functional areas. The due date for outstanding transactions to be cleared is 15 April 2006.

8. BAS interfaces and exceptions (DAS)

The responsible officials must ensure that all Bank and Persal interface exceptions are cleared before final closure. The BAS System Controller must ensure that all Persal runs have interfaced with BAS and that the PMG interfaces have taken place.

9. Reconciliations (DAS)

The Banking section must ensure that all urgent payments (NAPS) have been captured on BAS in respect of the 2005/2006 financial year. A bank reconciliation must be compiled i.r.o. of March 2006 to balance to the bank statement as at 31 March 2006.

10. Assets & Liabilities Accounts (DAS)

In order to classify Assets and Liabilities accounts correctly on the financial statements, it is imperative that the necessary steps are taken to clear these accounts to reflect the correct balances, e.g. credit balances on debt accounts, etc. In the case of investment accounts of special funds, the balances must be reconciled for final statement purposes.

11. Claims payable and claims receivable (DAS)

In respect of amounts owing by and to other departments it is a requirement that certificates of confirmation of amounts outstanding are submitted for audit purposes for each department with whom the WCED has transacted. The confirmation letters must be sent out within one month after year-end (30 April) and be returned by not later than 25 May 2006, to enable departments to disclose the correct balances in their financial statements.

12. Revenue payovers (DAS)

All revenue received for the financial year should be allocated and paid over to the Provincial Revenue Fund on a regular basis.

13. Preliminary and final closure (DAS)

The preliminary closure of the 2005/2006 financial year, i.e. March 2006, will take place on 21 April 2006. This implies that only BAS users taken on with period opening and closing adjustment functions (Accounts Controller) will be able to process further adjustments (journals) in respect of March 2006 before final closure which will take place on 26 April 2006. All BAS users are requested to ensure that all the necessary adjustments are authorised before the above-mentioned preliminary closing date, i.e. 21 April 2006.

Your whole-hearted co-operation and adherence to the requirements of this circular in assuring a successful close-off of the financial year, is appreciated.



SIGNED: L.J. ELY
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2006:03:13